5 ms·

I disagree with your assertion "There's tons of areas where that AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used". The issue with AIs or ML or any probabilistic predict

by x3c 11y ago

I disagree with your assertion "There's tons of areas where that AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used". The issue with AIs or ML or any probabilistic prediction of what user wants is that it takes away control. E.g. sorting your apps by usage. It's a solution in search of a problem. If you rearrange my apps by usage, you are asking me to search my apps everytime. It breaks my patterns and habits. And we are animals for patterns. There are some definite places where AI/ML/Adaptive algos help. Examples would be Facebook search, Apps recommendation, music recommendation, smart playlists, autocomplete and search etc. where any good tech team worth its salt is already using these techniques. It's also the reason why Knowmail or Inbox by google are not great. I go through my mail in a set pattern. I code those patterns by labels or folders and clean folder by folder. I don't need to context switch between each mail of similar definitive categories. In these mail solutions, I make decision of the context on each mail. Is it a support email or a collegue email or a mail from my priority mailing list or from a developer for tech problem? And that's why I'm thankful that AI is not being used in the tons of places that you refer. You will put me in a world where I'm living by someone else's patterns that mine own. At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it's a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
I guess some people think about it differently than others. I don't see a properly applied ML as taking away control - I see it as reinforcing your control. ML as applied to UIs should be about your conversation with the app (and nothing else, no cloud bullshit please). I haven't seen any actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've missed? To address your example of sorting apps. This is a dumb idea mostly because - as you said - it interferes with habit-forming. Not that anyone cares these days, I can't find many examples where people would remember to not rearrange stuff like context menus pointlessly. But I think it could work as an addition. Instead of resorting your icons, just have a (small) area with, say, 5 apps most relevant contextually. This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange visible widgets depending on your location and time of day. Great idea, but they fucked up execution (honestly, for such a project MVP is not enough, it gains utility per feature added in a superlinear fashion). I'd pay for something like this again. > At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it's a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems. Hey, I'm not asking for a product like this to be built for general population. GenPop has plenty of flashy shiny apps already. I wish that someone would build a tool for a subset of engineers who think the way I do. The market is big enough to facilitate that. And apparently unwilling to cater for niches.
- x3c 11y ago
  > I haven't seen any actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've missed? If you turn on smart filters, it'll try to club promotions / payments / forums etc. smartly. It'd be right 90% time. But my threshold would be less than 1% failure. If you open an email in Inbox, it'd recommend quick action replies like "Thanks, got it." or "Lets meet" etc.. It was on spot a lot of times, but I always wanted to add something more to the message and that's why I didn't use them. > This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange visible widgets depending on your location and time of day I used One Plus2 briefly which had an area for smart apps. Since I could never predict what would be there, I never used it. I went there a few times to see if it would shorten time to action. iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place. If Knowmail guys are reading this, I'm not trying to discourage the product. I think Smartness should be in "Search mode" and not "Action mode". Action mode is when I want quick decision making and less evaluation. Search mode is when I'm open for back to back snap evaluations and unsure of next steps. i.e. don't interrupt my natural patterns. Ofcourse, I'm just one data point.
  - mcintyre1994 11y ago
    > iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place. Are you sure this is what you think it is? For me that app is always just an iCloud continuity app from my Macbook - like Safari or something. I do have Siri app suggestions on the spotlight screen, those are typically useless.
    - x3c 11y ago
      http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes-location-context-to-a-new-level-lock http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes-locat... It's context cum geofencing. I might be mistaken though.

by x3c 11y ago

TeMPOraL 11y ago

I guess some people think about it differently than others. I don't see a properly applied ML as taking away control - I see it as reinforcing your control. ML as applied to UIs should be about your conversation with the app (and nothing else, no cloud bullshit please). I haven't seen any actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've missed? To address your example of sorting apps. This is a dumb idea mostly because - as you said - it interferes with habit-forming. Not that anyone cares these days, I can't find many examples where people would remember to not rearrange stuff like context menus pointlessly. But I think it could work as an addition. Instead of resorting your icons, just have a (small) area with, say, 5 apps most relevant contextually. This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange visible widgets depending on your location and time of day. Great idea, but they fucked up execution (honestly, for such a project MVP is not enough, it gains utility per feature added in a superlinear fashion). I'd pay for something like this again. > At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it's a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems. Hey, I'm not asking for a product like this to be built for general population. GenPop has plenty of flashy shiny apps already. I wish that someone would build a tool for a subset of engineers who think the way I do. The market is big enough to facilitate that. And apparently unwilling to cater for niches.

x3c 11y ago
> I haven't seen any actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've missed? If you turn on smart filters, it'll try to club promotions / payments / forums etc. smartly. It'd be right 90% time. But my threshold would be less than 1% failure. If you open an email in Inbox, it'd recommend quick action replies like "Thanks, got it." or "Lets meet" etc.. It was on spot a lot of times, but I always wanted to add something more to the message and that's why I didn't use them. > This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange visible widgets depending on your location and time of day I used One Plus2 briefly which had an area for smart apps. Since I could never predict what would be there, I never used it. I went there a few times to see if it would shorten time to action. iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place. If Knowmail guys are reading this, I'm not trying to discourage the product. I think Smartness should be in "Search mode" and not "Action mode". Action mode is when I want quick decision making and less evaluation. Search mode is when I'm open for back to back snap evaluations and unsure of next steps. i.e. don't interrupt my natural patterns. Ofcourse, I'm just one data point.
- mcintyre1994 11y ago
  > iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place. Are you sure this is what you think it is? For me that app is always just an iCloud continuity app from my Macbook - like Safari or something. I do have Siri app suggestions on the spotlight screen, those are typically useless.
  - x3c 11y ago
    http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes-location-context-to-a-new-level-lock http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes-locat... It's context cum geofencing. I might be mistaken though.